Among the Twilight Rays
by Agent Lackadaisical
Summary: A seemingly peaceful setting becomes an upbringing of a war between two cities of the same country. Although all seems normal, in such cases of destruction and chaos, there is something else behind the scenes of this massacre of the innocent.


**_CHAPTER 1: WHAT TWILIGHT BRINGS_**

There could be no doubt that this day was like that of any other, the sky gave an abnormal glow of orange, as the radiant sunset reflected off of puffy clouds above. But among this tangerine aura, were small blotches of dark sky tinged blue, and, the strangest one of all; seemingly, an array of darkening starry skies. A howling wind rustled a symphony of deadening sounds down the quiet street of Eastern Central. As though waiting for the precise moment, each individual light of the city buildings began to flicker on or out, and simultaneously do did the street lights. Not a soul wandered the irregular streets of the night, only a local cat out for an evening stroll. Most would be smart enough to try and be safe at home; once this strange twilight settled, only a fool hung around to see what it would bring. All was silent, the city seemingly began to darken from lack of street light, but there, among the common houses and other buildings of Central, there stood the last lit building in the entire area. Central Headquarters, also known as 'The EXTREMELY big building' to you non familiars. Who could possibly be inside, and could they really be ready, for what the twilight would bring?

"Again?! You won again?!" Damn it you must be doing something to cheat, Falman." Someone exclaimed it could be heard from down the hall or a matter of fact pretty much anywhere in the building. The frustrated man sat amongst a group of others, his hair tinted red, and he looked rather larger than the two included men.

"Sorry to break it to you Breda…but technically I'm unable of cheating while playing this game" This man, looking a bit elderly compared to the other two; because of his grey colored hair, sighed and began replacing the chess pieces.

"For some reason I'm regretting this idea of strip _chess _"The last blonde haired man stated, sitting there in merely his pants. He placed a hand into his pocket, pulling out a package of cigarettes. Opening it revealed that the plastic pack looked about half empty, or half full. Depending on how you looked at it. His fingers quickly snapped a clean cut cigarette up and slit it out of the deep depths of seemingly his soul.

"Good god Havoc, how many of those have you had, so far?" This man, who had brought us into their conversation; threw his stained white rag shirt, he had given up because of his losing streak, aside.

"This is my uh, third?" Havoc mumbled through the cigarette between his teeth. Bringing the lighter up, a small fume began to grow from said 'cancer stick's other end, once again he spoke. "Ok Falman…set 'me up!" The burning cigarette switched back and forth between Havoc's not so pearly whites, as he watched the older man finish placing each individual piece back onto the board.

"Now Havoc, are you sure you're ready for this? Only two more losses and you have to. Well"

"I know; I know. But I think I can actually win this time around"

"Quit while you're behind air head, get your smoke stack out of those clouds!"

"I think Breda is going in the right direction, the chances of you beating me after all other losses you've suffered tonight, are well extremely low, and I don't really think anyone here wants to see you're delicates." The grey man's eyebrow rose slightly, and gave a distinct impression of disgust.

"Whatever! Just set 'me up already, stop being a bad sport Vato..."

Falman sighed, giving up and beginning with the first move. Suddenly, as Jean raised a hand to his chin to think, the door leading into the lounge area creaked open. Before Havoc could place his move on the board, all three of the half naked men, with the exception of Falman, turned on a sharp corner, with half horrified expressions. All they could see was the dark, taunting hallway on the other side of the wooden door.

Slowly the door opened wider, nothing yet coming into the room which made it even creepier.

"Hello? Uh, Falman?" Breda Stuttered.

"W-what?" He replied.

"W-why don't you go check, it out, you know how to communicate with a ghost right?"

Falman gave an annoyed look towards Breda as he stood up slowly, "I'm not a median, idiot, but I will check it out."

"Plus…if it decides to take you over, it will take longer since you're wearing clothes!" Havoc grinned, nervously as Falman inched towards the 'haunted' door.

"Come out; Come out, wherever you are." Aimlessly, he reached down and held a gun out in front of him, scared out of his wits but willing to take a chance.

"Yeah take one for the team!" Havoc cheered on slightly, but then backed down, the remaining two men cowering in the lounge.

Vato disappeared into the dark hallway, followed by a most horrid shriek. Responding with extreme speed, Havoc and Breda jumped trying to come to the rescue. Bursting into the creepy hallway, both heads swiveled back and forth looking for any sign of Falman.

"What happened? Falman!" Breda cupped his shaking hands around his mouth, and hollered down one way of the hallway.

"Guys! Help me!" Falman's voice came echoing from down the dark, empty corridor.

Both men skidded towards the direction of the on coming voice, giving two nods they headed off in a sprint, both sets of feet making hollow noises with each step. The newly mopped floors made it easy to slip with the wrong movement or step. Coming to a close corner, Havoc and Breda grabbed onto a wall to try and come to a slow stop.

"Falman?! Where the hell did that grandpa go?!" Breda was turned to the right, while Havoc looked down the other way.

"Guys!?" His voice came again, making a sour noise in the frightened men's ears. A crash followed, pinpointing his location; to the left, just around the far corner.

The hollow footsteps began again, as the pair sprinted yet again towards their comrade's terrified voice. They tried to come to a stop, but wearing only socks, made it difficult.

Jean clung to his 'partner' as they went on a one way ride down the creepy, dark hallway. Both knew when they had stopped, when their faces had slammed into the wall on the end of the hall. Neither looked quite yet, scared that whatever had gotten Falman could get them just as easily, if not with greater ease.

"Ok man, we both look in three, two…one. Go!" Breda squeaked quietly, but in the end only Havoc ended up swiveled his head down the hall, where he seemingly beheld a horrible sight, for as soon as he had turned that blonde tinged head of his, he dragged Breda against the wall; so they were out of anyone's sight.

"Oh…my….god…What the hell was that?" Jean coward against the wall, as Breda grabbed him by the scruff, trying to shake the answers out of him.

"What happened man?! What did you see?"

"Falman….Falman…" He repeated, pointing towards around the corner they were hiding behind.

"What?" Breda slipped his head around the corner, much to his surprise, there was something there, but it wasn't Falman. In fact, it was a large, cute, adorable…dog. Sitting there happily, wagging its tail as if he had been expecting Breda all along. A scream was let out, followed by the quick return of Breda next to the cowering, topless, Blondie. "D-d-d-d-d-d-dog….big….dog" he chattered.

Jean's head perked up, and looked at his larger friend like he was crazy. "A dog?! Are you mad?" Suddenly he grabbed Breda's head and went back around the corner.

The red head had his hands over his eyes, still cowering, but when he eventually released his hands it was only after Havoc had convinced him there wasn't a dog standing there about to eat him.

"W-whoa..." Both men uttered, standing there, shocked. Because where that large dog had been, there was now a small, slim figure standing in a wedding type dress. The figure was turned away from the other two, and as it began to turn around, Havoc and Breda painted horrified looks upon their own faces.

"F-Falman?!" two voices shrieked at once, clinging to one another yet again.

"There you guys are! I missed you two!" The supposed third party ran over, still in a dress, picking both up in a giant hug.

"Ah…Falman? What, what the hell are you ding in a dress?!" Havoc waved his arms in the air angrily. "I dropped my cigarette because of you!"

"Aww let me get you another, come on sillies!" He gave a giggle, and began prancing off, back towards the lounge area where this all began.

Breda and Havoc stood there, giving that first horrified face, when they had originally encountered Falman's new look.

"Hurry up!"

Slowly, but surely, the two stupefied men followed after their supposed cross dressing partner.

Once back into the room where the lone chess board lay on the ground, Falman appeared, sitting in front of the chess pieces, smiling widely.

Havoc leaned over and mumbled into Breda's ear, low enough where they thought 'Falman' couldn't tell what they were discussing.

"Uh, Breda, do you notice anything weird here?" He cleared his low voice with a quick cough, twitching that blonde head towards Falman, referringly.

"Yeah...I know what you- 

"Guys, thanks a lot, I barely got out of that alive! Well maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration…" believe it or not, standing behind the two dumbfounded soldiers, was the grey haired _non cross dressing, _Falman. He was wearing his normal uniform, all except for his hair which was a bit scuffed up, but that was it.

Both 'gents swiveled around, to come face to face with another version of their former, missing compadre.

"Falman?! Then, who the hell is that!?" They shrieked, horribly loud, Havoc glanced over his shoulder, tapping Breda on the closest one he could find. As they faced the chess board once again, the two almost jumped onto the new man behind themselves.

Before these two idiots, stood one, lone, dark figure, but it wasn't that ballerina from before. This one was almost, hunched over themselves, head faced the ground, arms hanging, legs slightly spread apart; about shoulder width. As if the shadow filled the air, that portion of the room became almost as dark as it was outside.

Blonde hair, like feathers, protruded from under the blue hat upon its head. Their eyes were out of sight, so all that could be perceived was that this man was a small bodied, blonde haired man in some kind of Amestris uniform.

"H-he…looks like a …a zombie!" Breda pointed a strict finger at the cadaverous man in the dark corner.

"Now, now…relax, he's a new friend of mine, I guess he was just playing a little joke on you two..." Falman broke them apart, wrapping both arms around each pair of shoulders giving a small chuckle.

This didn't change anything, they still gave the new human form, a freakishly suspicious look, and finally something dispersed the silence once more.

"Sorry about that…heh, you guys just seemed so much fun to prank." The voice, which was not of the three main men, sounded smooth, young, and somehow it also seemed to brighten the tension. He began to stand straight, rubbing a hand up through his hair; after lifting the frumpy blue hat. The twenty-some year old face of the man beheld a pair of almost crystal clear; blue eyes. So clear, you could swear to see your own reflection in them.

"I-I don't trust you, even still, he could be some sort of uh…ghost, or something." Havoc's brows rose in question, he was burning something in that empty mind of his.

Breda took a few steps forward, eyeing the stiff. He raised his own hand to the end of his broad chin, stating something casual. "You…look, kind of familiar there. Have we met before? Because I swear I'd know this face any- Holy crap I know!" the hand pressed two fingers together, in a snapping motion, the light bulb had gone on in his head. "He's almost the spittin' image of Mustang!"

"Mustang?!" Havoc blinked a bit and then walked over to stand besides Breda. "Well, without the blonde feathers on his head, and the blue eyes, I guess so…but mustang could never pull off that disguise of Falman…and so quickly"

"Yeah…kid, how did you manage that?"

If expressions of the face or eyes could speak, this particular one would probably state it was a secret, but since they particularly can't, he just said it out loud with a simple, "It's a secret." And a smile; One that could match even King Bradley's, in length and creepiness.

"Well whatever you did, sure worked well, so what's your name stranger?" Breda interjected.

"Uh…_damn it_…" He let a small curse out under his breath, but returned the smile and rubbed the back of his head slightly. "Um, I guess I never really had a name…_orphan _and all. So just call me, well anything you'd like" He shrugged, replacing the hat to his head, and blowing a strand of hair out of view.

The three, _amigos _, grinned to each other, forming a huddle; where they all stood, turning back to face the new comer. Each of them, held that same stupid look.

"Well first…" There was Havoc.

"We've got to see what you're made of." Breda crossed his arms with a taunting smirk.

"Then we'll name ya', the night is young kid, so lets get started." Falman concluded their point, they all approached blonde boy, as if they were attempting to harm him in some way shape or form.

"Well…alright guys, but I have to warn you, I'm no ordinary _orphan_" A cocky look washed over his face, almost sadistic like.

"So can you fight…..kid?" The 'kid' notice seemed to burn him up, or so Jean seemed to think.

"Can you come up with any other insult than kid…imbecile?"

"Ouch….the little boys acting all grown up…well show me what you're made of." Havoc laughed a bit, ushering his assistance away; while he stood in a stance, resembling something somewhat close to even right.

Blondie sighed, taking a completely different stance, spreading his legs apart, and giving another wise cracked smirk. "Well what are you waiting for? Old man? You wanted to fight didn't you?"

"Hey! I am not old! Just because…"

"Oh shut up!" He grinned, an in the blink of an eye, sprinted up to the smoke breathing, blonde man, in a mere three steps, gracefully turning over and letting his seemingly skinny leg strike Jean's head; with a rather hard blow.

Breda and Falman fell back, as their third party air head came crashing on top of them.

"Hey…I…wasn't ready!" He tried to get up off of his pillow like partners.

"Wow….one hell of a leg there kiddo..." Breda sat up, shooting the young contender a thumbs up.

He simply scratched the back of his feathery head, "Heh, thanks, but really…I don't like being challenged, besides, I usually always end up winning when it comes to strength…no doubt about it."

"Well. I was just getting warmed up!" A bullet came rushing in the young man's direction, merely a flash of silver in everyone else's eyes.

As if timed perfectly, as if he had known that this moment was about to come, and as if this speeding, life taker was nothing at all, he brought his arm crossing across that scrawny chest he had come to know. The bullet stopped short of any vital organs, as it became lodged in the blonde man's arm. His blood stained, the blue colored sleeve of the uniform he wore, a deep purple shade, but he didn't seem to flinch for even a moment's notice.

"Will you look at that…didn't even bother to try and get out of the way, well enough playing around Jean. I'm sure Falman wants his turn." Breda patted Havoc on the back, and then winked to Falman, the _initiation _continued on.

"Indeed, well first off…kid. You know how to play chess?" This led him to be seated in a chair, placing their dull colored chess board on the table in front of his person.

"Chess? _Well…_sure, I think...I remember" He too sat down, eyeing the game pieces, tracing a finger along the top of each.

Vato smiled at this, his hand reaching down and moving one piece from where it started, to a space forward." Then let's begin, shall we?"

"Once more…I've got to warn you though man; last time I went around playing chess, I got my head chopped off and handed back to me on a silver platter" The once gentle touch, turned to a firm grip as he chose his own opening move.

Falman's eyes gazed down, trailing the young opponent's actions as if connected somehow with his thoughts. "Strange opening gesture…I'm sure you'll do fine..."

Meanwhile the other two bystanders or sitters in this case, gawked to see someone who seemed to have a fighting chance at beating Falman, at his own game.

It seemed as though the nearby clock had frozen, along with the miniature ones in everyone's pockets; or in other places around the room.

Pieces were scattered around the board, while a number of either ones, laid off the board; captured by the enemy.

"You're better than you give yourself credit…I have to admit, the right moves and I'll be stuck for good." Falman squinted his eyes and paused before placing one of his last pawns on an empty space, just trying to stay in the game.

'Ole Blondie gave a small hint of a smirk, quickly capturing the helpless piece with a tricky move, but barely pulling it off.

Move after move, the game became tense and nerve racking until it would be only a move away from a check mate.

"One false move, and this game is over kid" a tap echoed as Falman placed, what would be his last move, one of his men on another blank space. Vato drew back to look at their ending game. His eyes went back and forth over the board, compiling the moves that his young friend could make, but before he could study the man's own face, Falman's eyes were down back down quickly; his patience wasting.

Havoc and Breda cluttered around the others, excited to see whether their champion was going to finally get beat. All three nervous men watched quietly, Blondie's move going slowly so that to create the sense of a cocky personality.

"Oh just get it over with!" Havoc cried, his patience wearing extremely thin.

A loud, "Smack" met his impatience as a final move had been made. "Check. And mate…I believe so, that means I win" The young, egotistical man leaned back lifting both feet to cross upon the wooden table.

"Yes…yes it does" Falman sighed, but replaced the look of disappointment with one of an impressed smile. He was interrupted by a roar of laughter, Havoc and Breda obviously responsible.

"Man oh man Falman, you just got licked at your own game! Now you know what that means" Two bright grins caused the beaten man to surrender most easily. Vato Falman removed his jacket and threw it to the side. Completely annoyed at his fellow co-workers.

"I think I'm getting to know how you two are shirtless…let me guess now. You three are so pathetic, you guys don't even own a deck of cards for a poker game…I'm surrounded by idiots already."

"At least we're manly enough to take off our shirts!" Breda came up with a small pose, flexing some muscle, with a grin.

Havoc chuckled and Falman gave a small smile towards their red haired friend.

Feeling a bit challenged, our Mr. Current no name friend, threw his own jacket and remaining shirt off, revealing a muscle toned chest. He wasn't quite buff, but neither was he skin and bones.

"Wow…not bad Blondie!" Jean exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm sure you got the ladies chasing you all over!" Falman gave a sarcastic pat on Havoc's back, looking back to their feather headed friend.

"Ladies..?" Feather head, said a bit, well, nervously.

"Yeah…ladies…come on don't tell me you're scared of girls" Jean looked almost astounded, if only he knew what that word meant too.

"Looks terrified to me..." Falman gave another small chuckle.

"I've got it..!" Breda had a sudden stroke of brilliance, "I mean his name….he looks…like a _Terry!_"

Falman and Havoc groaned, feeling a pun coming on, but their new friend simply laughed, walking towards Breda and slapping him on the back rather harsh.

"Heh…funny joke mac, hmm, Terry. Has a nice ring to it, I'll take it"

"See…at least someone around here appreciates my talents, for name. Making" He stood proud, his shirt still randomly discarded somewhere around the room. His two companions standing by, waving colored flags; for the sake of the story.

"Well then, just call me Terry. Ugh, hey old man, that gun shot wound 'ya gave me; it's starting to bug me!" Terry laughed a bit, holding up his arm as blood dripped to the ground from his elbow.

"I'm not old damn it!" Havoc replied; rather angrily at that.

"Well, come on Terry, we'll find something around here to patch that up…'less you want to head to the infirmary" Breda rose a brow at their new wounded buddy.

"Uh…the infirmary?" Terry raised the non bleeding counterpart of his arm. "Let me think, ah, no I'll be fine, it's not like I'm going to die of blood loss! Ha, funny thought!" He reached down and grabbed his jacket, ripping a long piece of material while wrapping the strip around his arm, creating a deep blue arm type of sling. Slowly you could see the deep color, morph to a purpler like tinge.

"Wow...you sure do bleed, pretty boy" Havoc snorted sarcastically, examining his wound.

"Well...it is your fault air head…" He replied smirking.

"Who you calling airhead. Who's the one who just went and held his arm up for no reason?!" The cat calls and insults had begun as expected.

"If I hadn't of done that, you idiot might I add, it would have hit me in the chest!"

"Well you could have just moved out of the way! If you had an ounce of a brain!"

"If you'd just shut up you'd see I'm not as stupid as you think I am!" Terry readjusted his glasses slightly and glared towards Havoc. "Just because I protected myself, you claim I'm stupid, but it is you who is the dumb one, you couldn't control your urge to win so you tried to make the illusion that I could have lost…by not moving away I myself have beaten you at which you strove to beat me…courage, in being courageous, but none the less egotistical, I have proven your lack of courage and in place of that courage you have traded in for cowardice in order to have the strength to shoot your gun there. You did not care if it would have been empty, but by your cowardice luck is only how you managed to pin my arm…"

Terry's speech left all three of the other men dumbfounded, speechless and gawking at his educated language.

"Where the hell did that come from kid?!" Breda exclaimed holding his head, he had simply been blown away.

There was silence for a moment, Havoc and Terry's eyes were locked in glares. But for another second, nothing happened; Terry's eyes narrowed strangely his pupils turned to slits but only Havoc noticed.

"What the?" Jean whispered to himself, a look of confusion changing his expression. Soon he began to give up, taking out a cigarette plainly and stuck it into his mouth.

"I got to admit it Ter…" Breda slapped an arm around the bleeding man's shoulder, but it had seemed the pain was slowly getting to Terry. "You're one tough four eyes!" laughing to himself, Breda didn't notice his blonde friend fall over a bit, his eyes squinting closed.

His other arm bent up to hold the wound gently, "Eh, thanks guys but I think..." Terry fell to the floor suddenly, gripping tightly at his arm.

"Oh…what happened kid?" Breda bent down over him looking a bit confused.

"You, try walking a cross a desert….two hundred-something miles like that..." The sling was already dyed a mixture of purple and deep blue, he had bled too much.

"Boy lets get you something to drink kiddo, and you might want to 'splain where ya'came from too..."

It was no use; Terry was unconscious on the ground. It almost took all three of the men to pick up and carry him to the nearest couch. Nearby, all three created a huddle speaking quietly.

"This guy's kind of strange, he claims he has no frickin name, walked across a hundred some miled desert and where the hell did that speech come from?" Havoc peered over his shoulder eyeing the unconscious scrawny man.

"I agree, he's not normal, he must be hiding something. Maybe he's a spy?" Falman suggested.

"No, I doubt it, he's so sure about himself…and he let himself fall unconscious with the three of use in his presence…" Jean sighed once rubbing the back of his head.

"Mhmm…" Breda nodded slightly, adding a, "For once Havoc's got a point, if he was some kind of spy, he'd probably put up a bigger fight than this."

"Let him lie for a while, we'll all give him a proper interrogation in the morning. 'Till then, "Falman gave a yawn, "Its late…and being kidnapped has made me tired…let's bunk here for the night guys, make sure out friend doesn't get any ideas"

Vato stretched and walked off, leaning down and grabbing his jacket. He pulled up another chair after plopping down in one more, propping his feet upon the second. "Night fellas' "A low chuckle was his last response before drifting into sleep.

Breda's response, a sigh and a shrug, came short after. He plainly lay down on the ground, grabbing his shirt and jacket to use as a blanket and temporary pillow. The quiet snoring began; Leaving Havoc the only one left awake.

"Well I guess…" He whispered to himself, taking a comfortable seat next to the couch, where Terry was unconsciously sleeping. Havoc's head rested against a cold wall, his eyes raveled out from behind the arm rest of the couch to watch the other man lie there. "There was something about those eyes of his…." Havoc sighed, closed his eyes, and drifted off along with the other three.

The room was quiet, not a sound disturbed the peace. Breda twitched slightly, most likely gone of into a dream already, Havoc's mind quietly dreamt of tons of girls, surrounding him on a beach. Falman simply kept his mind at a blank, softly sleeping.

Suddenly, there was a peeping sound, the wooden door leading into the large room, was being opened. Its squeak had a high enough frequency to deafen any normal ear, but the boys were too deep into sleep, all except for our favorite feather head.

One eye shot open, his pupils still dilated into little slit like shapes. Darkness enveloped his entire body, as Terry became nothing but a shadow on the couch. Gradually the shadow began to disappear and then reappeared some ways down the hallway.

Footsteps could be heard slowly, Terry limped down the corridor, the only part of his body that wasn't hidden in shadow; was his face, not to mention some 'feathers'.

At the end of the long hallway, another lone figure stood the probable origin of the opening squeaky door.

Terry limped a little slowly, his eyes narrowing; he adjusted his glasses and smirked wickedly. The small man's face morphed into an almost reptilian like form; Terry's eyes were bright yellow, the feather tufts on his head turned a deep purple and Ter's smirk opened to reveal a grin of razor sharp teeth. "This should be fun…" He growled low to himself.

A long pause followed, the transformed Terry trudged forward quietly until…a loud ear shattering scream, far more worse than the squeaky door, it echoed down every hallway it could find, traveling wherever and into whatever it could manage. Once the ear shattering sound died down, a large 'Thud!' came following.

Nothing came afterwards. Nothing but quiet. Suddenly a shadow slowly appeared on the couch, again, a form grew and there lie Terry. A large smirk upon his face, he closed his eyes and apparently fell back to sleep.


End file.
